David McBride: Australian military whistleblower jailed for leaking documents

Even before becoming one of Australia’s most famous whistleblowers, McBride led a colorful life.

After graduating from Oxford University with a law degree, he began his career with a stint in the British army. Leaving after reaching the rank of captain, he then tried his hand at everything from private security to reality TV and politics, before completing his commission and joining the Australian Defense Force ( ADF).

As a legal officer, he served two tours of duty in Afghanistan in 2011 and 2013, the latter with special forces. That’s when he began to get the impression that the commanders had “crossed the line”.

Over the next few years, as he suffered from undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and abused drugs and alcohol, McBride said he became increasingly convinced that he needed to speak out.

Working late into the night at a military base near Canberra, he began secretly copying hundreds of sensitive documents, sneaking them home in a backpack over 18 months.

He tried an internal complaint first. When he failed, he went to the police and the defense minister before turning to the press.

He believes the dossier he compiled will show that the ADF chain of command was so concerned about the perception of unlawful killings that they were scapegoating soldiers and undermining the confidence of special forces in their work.

Instead, ABC journalist Dan Oakes found they contained evidence that Australian forces had committed war crimes and had lied to cover them up.

“The more I look at it, I can’t understand why anyone would think these guys were being watched so closely,” he recently told Four Corners. Completely opposite”.

“What happens on the field stays on the field.”

Afghanistan Profile, outside includes revelations that military leaders themselves feared a “warrior culture” in the force and details of how soldiers allegedly covered up the extrajudicial killings of men and young men unarmed children – including a six-year-old boy who was allegedly shot in his sleep. in 2013.

Up to that point, there had been few reports of allegations of war crimes.

McBride was quickly implicated as the man behind the leak and he fled to Spain shortly before the Australian Federal Police (AFP) stormed his apartment. There, police found four plastic boxes filled with confidential documents hidden in a cabinet.

After a year in hiding, McBride returned to Australia and was charged with theft of Commonwealth property, breach of the National Defense Act and disclosure of secret information.

Police also began building a case against Mr Oakes and producer Sam Clarke. 2019, They raided the ABC’s Sydney headquarters and documents seized.

It was an unprecedented moment in Australia and made headlines globally. Under pressure from public opinion, prosecutors ultimately decided not to charge the journalists, arguing that doing so would not be in the public interest.